CUCKOOS, COWBIRDS AND OTHER CHEATS. By N.B. Davies. Illustrated by David Quinn.

2000 1st edition. 4to (192 x 260mm). Ppx,310,ii. Colour photographs, b/w illustrations by David Quinn, charts, maps, extensive bibliography. Dark blue boards, spine titled in gilt.

"Cuckoos and cowbirds are amongst the select bird groups renowned as professional parasites, who always lay their eggs in the nest of other species. ...In this fascinating new book, Nick Davies describes the natural histories of all the brood parasites and examines the exciting questions they raise about the evolution of cheating and the arms race between parasites and their hosts. ...Here is a book of wide appeal, both to amateur naturalists fascinated by this most singular and macabre of behaviours and to ornithologists and ecologists interested in the evolution of ecology and behaviour. The story takes us from the strange tales of folklore to the classic field work earlier this century by pioneer ornithologists such as Edgar Chance, Stuart Baker, Herbert Friedmann and others, through to the recent experimental field work and molecular techniques of today's leading scientists. We visit brood parasites in Europe, Asia, Japan, Africa, Australasia, and North and South America, to look at some of the world's most interesting birds and some of biology's most interesting questions, many of which still beg answers from ornithologists in the future".